Friday, February 20, 2009
Christiansburg wrestler is complete package
Christiansburg's Devin Carter, the top-ranked 112-pounder in the country, has his sights set on another VHSL championship.
The Roanoke Times | File 2008
Bassett's Andrew Miller (top) is a returning Group AA champion in the 285-pound weight class.
Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
Christiansburg High's Devin Carter locks up Hidden Valley High's Taylor Shumate during the 112-pound final at the Region IV wrestling tournament last Saturday. Carter won the bout by pin.
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Devin Carter once was a 98-pound weakling.
OK, make that 96 pounds.
But now the kid who got sand kicked in his face two years ago is kicking some serious butt.
The Christiansburg junior will shoot for his second straight VHSL Group AA wrestling championship this weekend at Salem Civic Center when he goes after the title in the 112-pound division.
Carter will carry more than just the title of returning state champion when he steps on the mat today for his first-round match against Brandon Fletcher of Sherando High School.
He's not merely the top 112-pounder in Group AA.
Carter is ranked No. 1 in the nation at 112 pounds by Amateur Wrestling News.
Carter -- with a 48-1 record this season -- knows he is the man to beat, and he's not counting on anyone to be able to do it.
"I'm pretty sure I can dominate everybody, but I've just got to be ready to wrestle," he said.
Several observers had Carter pegged as a sure-fire four-time state champion on the eve of the 2007 Group AA tournament. That was until Magna Vista's Tony Gravely proved to be the better man in a 4-2 sudden-death overtime final.
"I was like a 96-pound 103-pounder and everyone else was a lot bigger than that," Carter said. "I was just happy to be in the finals, which was bad. I should have been out there to win it.
"Everybody thought I was going to be a four-timer, then that happened. Being a three-timer is the next best thing."
Losing might not be fun, but it has been fundamental to Carter's success.
He lost 10 matches as a freshman, coming on the heels of years of dominance at the youth level before he moved to Christiansburg from High Point, N.J.
"He was used to going to national tournaments and winning them," Christiansburg coach Daryl Weber said.
"When he first got to high school he wasn't winning all the time. He was very frustrated. He's had a lot of letdowns, a lot of defeats. He's accepted defeats but he's always back in the room trying to get better. It's doesn't discourage him. It motivates him. That's a big factor."
Carter's lone loss this season was a 3-2 decision to second-ranked Evan Silver of Blair Academy (N.J.) in the final of the Beast of the East tournament in Newark, Del.
"I wasn't ready to wrestle," Carter said. "I was sore. I was tight. I wasn't ready to take shots. I was playing defense a little bit. I wasn't on my game."
Few sports feature contrasting emotions of winners and losers like high school wrestling, particularly in front crowds of 5,000 that pack the civic center. When Carter lost to Gravely in 2007, he cared little that 10,000 eyes were on him.
"It's more like internal conflict," he said. "You're not really thinking about anything else around you. You're just thinking about your own thoughts. You're thinking about the whole season, then it's just kind of over so quick."
Carter's 2007-08 season featured a happier ending. He rolled to a 57-3 record with 40 pins and won the state title with a 13-3 major decision over Grundy's Sean Vandyke in the final.
Vandyke figures to be Carter's chief competition this weekend. Carter scored a 21-5 technical fall over the Grundy sophomore in last week's Region IV semifinals.
Carter senses a mixture of fear and ferocity in his opponents. Some are beaten before they take the mat. Others, it takes longer.
"Some kids, you go out there and you can tell they're a little timid," Carter said. "Some kids go out there with a nothing-to-lose mentality. They come at me with blazing guns and everything. Some people actually wrestle better when they wrestle me."
Christiansburg wrestles a national schedule, leaving most of the Blue Demons with pockmarked individual records. Carter, who won the prestigious Walsh Ironman tournament in Stow, Ohio, earlier this season, rates the VHSL championship lower on the scale.
"That doesn't mean as much to me as going out to national-level tournaments and winning those," he said. "But states is what everybody looks at, so you've just got to show up ready."
Carter joined a long list of state champions at Christiansburg, which has won the last seven Group AA team titles. Weber says the New Jersey transfer is a rare bird.
"He's a unique kid in that you just don't see that many driven high school kids," the Christiansburg coach said. "There's a handful of elite kids every year in every sport. He's one of those kids.
"Some kids are elite because they're just athletically gifted. He's a combination of being naturally strong with good balance. But he's mentally tough."
Carter said he expects to move up at least two weight classes next year, when he plans to add a heavy lifting regimen to prepare for a likely college career. He is also attempting to become the second Christiansburg wrestler in the last three years to finish the season ranked No. 1 nationally. Fellow New Jersey transplant Cody Gardner was ranked No. 1 at 215 pounds in 2007,
Before he graduates, Carter plans to help Christiansburg add eighth and ninth successive state titles.
"What keeps Christiansburg so good is nobody wants to lose the state title while they're there," Carter said. "I'm really hoping the tradition doesn't end with me."
